page_title: Hour of the Wolf
section_title: Themes and interpretations
hierarchical_section_title: Hour of the Wolf / Themes and interpretations
caption_attribution_description: English: Emanuel Schikaneder as the first Papageno in Mozarts Die Zauberflöte. Front page of the original edition of the libretto of the Zauberflöte.Nederlands: Emanuel Schikaneder als eerste PapagenoDeutsch: Emanuel Schikaneder als der erste Papageno. Aus dem Titelblatt der Erstausgabe des Librettos der Zauberflöte.
context_page_description: Hour of the Wolf is a 1968 Swedish psychological horror film directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann. The story explores the disappearance of fictional painter Johan Borg, who lived on an island with his wife Alma while plagued with frightening visions and insomnia.
  Bergman originally conceived much of the story as part of an unproduced screenplay, The Cannibals, which he abandoned to make the 1966 film Persona. He took inspiration from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 1791 opera The Magic Flute and E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1814 novella The Golden Pot, as well as some of his own nightmares. Principal photography took place at Hovs Hallar, Stockholm and Fårö.
  Themes include insanity, particularly as experienced by an artist, sexuality, and relationships, conveyed in a surreal style and with elements of folklore. Analysts have found allusions to vampire and werewolf legend. Authors have also connected the work to Bergman's life and his relationship with Ullmann; Bergman said he was experiencing his own "hour of the wolf" when he conceived the story.
  The film was initially met with negative reviews in Sweden.
context_section_description: Johan has been interpreted as "Bergman's alter ego". Professor Frank Gado interprets the film as the "story of an artist's disintegration" (also arguing it reflects "Bergman's own unraveling", and criticizing the film). Author Dan Williams similarly reads it as a "story of the self-destructive artist unable to maintain a relationship with reality". Psychiatrist Barbara Young writes that Hour of the Wolf, like Persona, was about "the disintegration of a personality" (also rejecting Gado's commentary on "Bergman's own unraveling" and instead praising his courage for addressing his issues). The artist's "humiliation" is also depicted. Gado connects Johan to Karin in Bergman's 1961 Through a Glass Darkly, remarking that Johan is at a crossroads where he "must choose between two worlds": real life and his nightmare visions. Gado considers whether Johan may fear he is homosexual, writing Johan's "perversity manifests itself in transvestism, masochism, and necrophilia, yet none of these necessarily indicates homosexuality".
  Williams links the artistic visions with "oppression by a group of aristocrats", as the castle's people become vampire-like and "the unreality of Johan's world takes over". Scholar Egil Törnqvist compares what he saw as vampirism in Hour of Wolf to that in Persona, adding that the portrayals are similar to themes in the work of playwright August Strindberg. Writer Laura Hubner asserts the legend of the werewolf also informed themes of "fission and conflict" and "confused sexuality". According to Hubner, the film's central notion of cannibalism, with a fear of being consumed, is linked to lycanthropy and the legend of Little Red Riding Hood, and these legends are also associated with sexual awakening.
  Academic Gordon Thomas discusses a theme of a relationship in which one person's identity is absorbed into another's. Thomas wrote, "the von Merkens et al. are manifestations of Johan's own self-loathing, and Alma, because she loves him, must be present at her husband's phantasmagorical inquisition". Critic Robin Wood compares Hour of the Wolf to Persona in how Alma becomes able to see Johan's "inner horrors", while in Persona Alma is affected by Elisabet's views. While recognizing insanity as a major theme, writer José Teodoro argues another (shared with Bergman's later Shame and The Passion of Anna) is "the realization that it is impossible for any one person to truly know another", with Alma realizing she never understood her husband. Authors have related the story's couple to Bergman's real-life relationships: Thomas theorizes that during production Ullmann was "'at peace' with the world, while her genius boyfriend was not". Young notes Bergman had abandoned his wife Käbi Laretei and son Daniel for Ullmann, yet Hour of the Wolf is dedicated to Laretei, suggesting the story of the disintegrating artist was meant to explain to Laretei why he left them.
  Gado identifies the Birdman character as "Bergman's ironic inversion" of The Magic Flute, with Johan stating the Birdman is likely related to the Magic Flute character Papageno. According to Gado, the Birdman represents "corruptive self-knowledge and a 'natural' evil seated in childhood sexuality". Thomas identifies the character Lindhorst as Johan's Birdman. Other writers have found parallels to E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Golden Pot. These include the character names Lindhorst, Heerbrand and Veronica. Gado argues the film's Veronica is more analogous to Hoffmann's character Serpentina than to the literary Veronica, but that the book recognizes Veronica and Serpentina as both being part of "a double image of Woman". Gado adds that, like the book's Veronica and Serpentina, in the film, "Veronica is Alma inverted".
  In one scene, Johan describes murdering a boy. Professor Irving Singer wrote that it is ambiguous whether Johan's story is real or imagined. According to Young, Bergman had said the boy represents his own internal "demon" and the boy's struggle with Johan is meant to look "orgasmic". Gado connects the boy to Johan's recollection of his childhood, when he w
caption: The story and Birdman character were partly influenced by The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
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